Crow T. Robot is one of the main characters of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a TV series from the 20th century that aired on Comedy Central. The series features a man and his robot sidekicks who are trapped on a space station by an evil scientist and forced to watch a selection of bad movies, initially (but not specifically limited to) science fiction B-movies.

In Futurama, Crow makes a cameo appearance at the movie theater in silhouette form, along with fellow Mystery Science Theater 3000 character Tom Servo, just as they do in their TV series. He tells Fry to keep quiet during the movie. This is ironic, as the whole premise of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 involved him talking during the entire film.